


Powder Blue

by Jaseish (Kymopoleia)



Series: Take My Hand [8]
Category: LoliRock (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, big time feels, this is me figuring out how to write her haha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 20:10:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11928357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Jaseish
Summary: Izira, Crown Princess of Xeris and Queen-to-be. Daughter of Elena and Risa, elder sister to Talia, leader to the rebels who fought against Gramorr.She returns home.





	Powder Blue

The first time Izira understood how much her parents loved the kingdom was when she met her baby sister. A tiny little thing, dozing in a nest of blankets in her mother's arms. So small, so perfect, a chubby face with pouty lips. Izira hadn't been so old herself, but somehow she suddenly felt ancient.

Mama had held her hand tightly, smiling at her wife and the new baby, and Izira had known she'd do everything to protect the little girl.

She studied harder, stood straighter, begged Mama for more responsibility. Anything to get better, to be better, to be the best she could be.

And the baby? Her little sister was a spitfire. Full of energy and fire, always running in the halls and sliding down banisters and giving their parents headaches.

Izira ran her fingers over the dusty crystal banister. Even now the filth seems to permeate the air, filtering through and showing every beam of light. The debris litters the floor, remnants of a time long lost and spitting in the face of everything she remembered. How beautiful the floors had once been, how vibrant and untorn the tapestries. How many times she'd hidden behind those tapestries, only to be caught by her poking out toes, how many times had she chased her sister for bath time or for some fancy dinner neither of them wanted to attend? How many times had Talia fallen in these halls? Scraped her knees, bruised her hands, cried for a second then bounced right back? She'd always been so strong.

Talia was nothing like Izira. She didn't need any reason or motive to love the city, love the people. She just did, with all of herself and her childish wonder.

Maybe Izira was selfish. Maybe she didn't mind. If it'd been up to her she'd have done anything to keep her siser hidden.

The world didn't deserve her.

But Talia wanted the world, in all its bitter broken glory. She wanted everything, wanted to breathe in the night air and be among the people and be just like them, then return home each night and curl up in a mound of traveras silk and forget the world she’d left at the castle gates.

One of Izira’s feet crunches a piece of granite that’d been scattered over the floor for the past ten years. The citizens had ransacked the castle, for survivors and for goods and for guidance. Wouldn’t she have liked to be that naïve, to be that innocent in the matters of the kingdom.

She pauses in a doorway, shaking hand pressed to the doorframe. Ten years since she’d been home, ten years since her mothers had died.

The throne room is haunting, tall ceilings betraying each step taken by echoing it through the room, amplifying it to make it seem grand. Mama had such a soft voice, such a gentle rasp, but in this room it carried with a gravelly power that Izira could never hope to achieve.

And there they were. Mama, hand outstretched in front of her, Mother, just starting to get out of her throne.

Their faces, lifeless and frozen, were trapped in the poisoned crystal that’d killed them. How cruel, to turn her parents to the very substance they commanded, and how terrifying it must have been to feel their hearts stop beating in their chests.

Izira steps towards Mama, hands falling to lift her skirts so that she doesn’t trail them over the ground.

“We won, Mama.” She whispers. “Talia will want to come home soon.”

The statue doesn’t speak.

Izira steps into the statue’s space, looking her over. She reaches out to trail a finger down the free strand of Mama’s hair, the one that never stayed put. Tears prickled at her eyes, starting to feel cottony from the memory-heavy air choking her. “She never knew what happened to you. She… she didn’t find you. I didn’t know what to tell her, she thought I was dead too until this year.”

“She did well without us badgering her, Mama. I promise. She’s so strong, like you, like me. She was always more like Mother before, so sweet and ambitious, but being alone changed her. She was with the council, sure, but they’re no good for a little girl. Do you remember when she snuck into the meeting? Hid under your desk until it started, listened all the way through, and jumped out when she didn’t like what was being said? So strong.”

The first tear slid down her cheek. “Mama, I did the best I could. If I hadn’t been captured, you know I’d have been there with her every step of the way. Maybe she didn’t need me, but I wouldn’t have let her get a hard shell like us.”

The only reply she gets is the echoes of her own rambling.

“Mama… we won. He’s dead. Talia found the crown princess, and together they killed him.”

The finality of the statement is as loud as her whisper.

Louder still is her heartbeat, pounding as she pulls back a safe distance to look at Mama’s statue. “I’m so proud of her, Mama. She’s going to do great things. Not like us, not like any of the old royals. Borealis, Calix, Runic, Volta, we’re all going to do better. But for that to happen, we can’t be too hung up on the past. I can’t let Talia see what we used to be, see everything we’ve done. I can’t let her see you, Mama, no matter how much it hurts.”

A magic circle appears over her hand as she spreads out her fingers, aiming them at the floor. “She’s already said her goodbyes, Mama. This is me saying mine.”

“Estro… vibratum.” She whispers.

The shockwave cracks some of the columns and sends others crumbling, shatters both crystal statues of her parents.

By the time her guards get to the throne room, it’s just her standing with a crown in one hand and the sacred pen in the other. The fine dusting of powder blue crystal will be cleaned up without a second thought soon, the only evidence of her crime the waver in her voice as she gives the order.

“Tomorrow, we clean this place up. Princess Talia will come home to a restored castle, am I clear?”


End file.
